Franchise Industry: B2B or B2C?

Firstly, the difference between a B2B franchise and a B2C franchise is who they are selling their products and services to. B2C stands for business-to-consumer and they sell directly to the consumer, whereas a B2B, business-to-business is the process of selling from one business to another. Each business model offers different advantages and will suit different types of people, so to understand which one would best suit you, you need to understand yourself first. If you need help in identifying what’s important for you then I would recommend reading the following article – Choosing a Franchise

Place of work

B2B franchises range in terms of what they require for their place of work, for example, a courier franchise might be able to operate at home as the only equipment they may need would be a delivery vehicle. Others may need an office space but they often buy/rent space further away from city centres, to decrease cost, which gives you an opportunity for car parking space and offers more ability to scale.

B2C franchises focus more on high footpath areas, this is because they need a constant flow of people outside their store to grab consumer’s attention. This isn’t always the case, however, as you could operate from home using the internet directly selling to consumers.

Working hours

A B2B franchise is more likely to have sociable working hours and they tend to work similar hours to their customers. Working hours can often be an issue of concern for a lot of people as they like to have a healthy mix of work and social life.

A B2C franchise must operate in the hours when their target market is most likely to be in the area to buy their products, for this reason you are much more likely to work until 8pm, or even later, Monday – Friday as many customers want to do some shopping or go for food in the evening.

Customers

In a B2B franchise you are likely to find an array of customer types but, with them always working for another business, they will often conduct themselves in a more professional manner as they are representing a company and they would not want to jeopardise their job. The transaction period will often last longer and you may have an ongoing relationship, so ongoing rapport building will be more critical.

Many B2C franchises, such as those who operate in the food sector, have customers where transactions can last up to a couple of minutes, thus rendering first impressions vital; those who can instantly build rapport will excel in a B2C franchise. The customer types will range more in these franchises as everybody could potentially use your service, this means you must be ready to adapt to any situation as customers can be more difficult, as many retail franchisees may confess.

Services & Sales

With the majority of B2B franchises, customers won’t walk into your offices and ask for something. A proactive sales approach is needed, so a franchisee with a sales flair to make something out of a small opportunity will be best suited here. The services that you offer are often something a business may need, for example a finance outsourcing franchise, this means if they don’t cover in house, they will need a business to conduct this for them, making the sale focused towards proving you’re the correct business instead of convincing them they need the service.

The B2C franchise market is more focused towards quick transactions, where you are offering something they want but not necessarily need, this means you need to entice them – your marketing skills may be called upon. This also means your sales technique may need to change, perhaps more focused on improving awareness of your location so a targeted marketing campaign may be more useful here.

What should I choose?

This blog doesn’t give you this answer directly, you need to use it to understand what out of these areas would you consider a strength of yours, the franchise after all will be difficult to run effectively anyway, so if you operate in a field where your strength lies, there’s a much higher chance of success. It is also extremely relevant to consider what you enjoy, nobody will argue that people perform task better when they enjoy it. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to enjoy it but you’ll find one model will have more tasks you won’t enjoy and as these may become your tasks for 20+ years, so I would suggest you evaluate if you can do this day in day out for a long period, and if not, keep looking.